Pent Up Demand, High Urgency Stir Up Good Home Buying Activity

Posted on November 3rd, 2018

For the 5th consecutive year, Charleston has been chosen as the #1 City in the US and Canada by Travel and Leisure Magazine. Amazon has ordered 20,000 Mercedes Sprinter Vans from our local factory in N Charleston. And Volvo is hinting there will be a third vehicle manufactured here in addition to the S60 and XC90. United Airlines also just ordered 9 new 787’s to be built at our Boeing Plant. All this manufacturing is always a good thing. Obviously, this probably has a lot to do with the growth in our real estate market.

Buying activity is very good for this time of year. I suspect some pent up demand from the hurricane activity and higher urgency due to higher interest rates. Summerville, Goose Creek, and Moncks Corner areas continue to be very strong with excellent pricing. Remember, there will be an economic recession at some point in the future. However, real estate usually holds its value during recessions. This is one of the many great things about owning real estate. You will not likely ever see a real estate downturn like 2008 ever again.

Median Sales Price

2018 will be very close to matching the record sales of 2017. Median sales price is up a whopping 7.1% to $272,000. Many MLS areas are up even more than that. Only three MLS areas are significantly down in median sales price: Seabrook, Wild Dunes, and North Charleston/Summerville Outside I-526.

Sales

YTD, we are down 0.4% in terms of transactions. We were on pace to barely beat last year’s record. Now that is in question. Almost 38% of what we now have under contract is new construction.

Months of Inventory

MOI for the entire area is only 3.3 months, a serious sellers market.

The following stats were provided by the Charleston Trident Multiple Listing Service.